Abbas was in Brussels after meeting earlier in the day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. He was seeking support for a resumption of direct international aid to the Palestinian government that was halted last summer after Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction, won parliamentary elections.
Merkel, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, said in Berlin that the power-sharing deal between Abbas' Fatah faction and the militantly Islamic Hamas was positive because it stopped recent fighting between the two that cost some 130 lives. "It is good that the bloodletting, especially in Gaza, has been stopped but there is a difficult stretch in front of us," Merkel said after meeting with Abbas.
In Brussels,
However, a Fatah-Hamas agreement negotiated in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, says the new government must "respect" previous accords and makes no reference to recognizing Israel or renouncing violence. Solana told reporters the EU continued to insist on the Quartet demands and was awaiting the formation of a national unity government before taking any decision on resuming direct aid.